Attractions & Natural Wonders · Lithuania

Lithuania: Seven Attractions and Natural Wonders

A baroque old town and its bohemian breakaway republic, a red-brick island castle, a hillside of hundreds of thousands of crosses, and a sculpture park of toppled Soviet statues

By Worldlore Editorial · 19 September 2026

A hilltop tower and a skyline of church spires and red roofs above a river at dusk
Vilnius old town at dusk, with Gediminas' Tower on the hill above the Neris river. (Diliff / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0)

The largest of the Baltic states

Lithuania, the southernmost and largest of the three Baltic states, has about 2.8 million people and a history that includes ruling one of the largest empires in medieval Europe, centuries under Polish, Russian, and Soviet control, and a peaceful re-independence in 1990 that helped trigger the Soviet Union's collapse. It has a baroque capital, a long sandy Baltic coast, and a landscape of forests, lakes, and flat farmland.

The seven below run from Vilnius out to the coast and the south. Late spring through early autumn is best for the coast and outdoor sights; Vilnius has a good Christmas market season too.

1. Vilnius old town

A white neoclassical cathedral with a freestanding bell tower on a large open square
Vilnius Cathedral and its bell tower on Cathedral Square, the heart of the old town. (Abrget47j / Wikimedia Commons)

Vilnius has one of the largest and best-preserved baroque old towns in Eastern Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of over 1,000 historic buildings — churches of nearly every faith and denomination side by side, the neoclassical cathedral, Gediminas' Tower on its hill (climbable for the view), the university founded in 1579, and the Gates of Dawn shrine. It is also a compact, walkable city with a growing food and craft-beer scene.

Two or three days covers the centre and the sights below it.

2. Užupis

A bronze angel statue on a column above a cobbled street of colourful old buildings
The Angel of Užupis, symbol of the bohemian Vilnius district that half-jokingly declared itself an independent republic in 1997. (Augustas Didžgalvis / Wikimedia Commons)

Across a small river from the old town, Užupis is a former run-down artists' quarter that declared itself a mock "republic" on April Fools' Day 1997, complete with its own flag, currency, and a wry, whimsical constitution posted on a wall in dozens of languages (Article 12: "A dog has the right to be a dog"). It has since gentrified into galleries, cafés, and street art without entirely losing its irreverent spirit.

It is a short walk from Cathedral Square, best explored on foot.

3. Trakai Island Castle

A red-brick medieval castle on a small island, connected by wooden bridges, surrounded by a lake
Trakai Island Castle, the former seat of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, on a lake near Vilnius. (Julo / Wikimedia Commons)

Trakai, half an hour from Vilnius, was an early capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and its red-brick island castle — rebuilt in the 20th century after centuries of ruin — is the country's most photographed sight, linked to the shore by wooden footbridges across a lake dotted with other islands. The town is also home to the Karaim, a Turkic-speaking minority with their own distinctive cuisine, best tried at a kybynai pastry stall by the castle.

Boat rentals and lake swimming make it a popular summer outing from the capital.

4. The Hill of Crosses

A hillside completely covered in tens of thousands of crosses of every size
The Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai, holding an estimated 100,000-plus crosses left by pilgrims. (Diliff / Wikimedia Commons)

Near Šiauliai in the north, a small hill has been covered since the 19th century with crosses left by pilgrims and mourners, repeatedly bulldozed by Soviet authorities who saw it as a symbol of Lithuanian identity and religious resistance — and repeatedly rebuilt overnight. It now holds an estimated 100,000 or more crosses of every size and material, a powerful and unusual sight. Pope John Paul II visited in 1993.

It is a detour off the main road between Riga and Vilnius, or Šiauliai itself.

5. The Curonian Spit

A high sand dune with sparse grass overlooking a calm lagoon
The great sand dunes of the Curonian Spit, a narrow peninsula shared with Russia's Kaliningrad exclave. (Hartmut Schmidt Heidelberg / Wikimedia Commons)

The Curonian Spit is a narrow, 98-kilometre sand-dune peninsula separating a lagoon from the Baltic Sea, its Lithuanian half a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site (shared with Russia). Some of Europe's tallest shifting dunes rise at Nagliai and Parnidis, pine forest covers much of the rest, and the resort town of Nida has brightly painted fishermen's houses and a former summer house of Thomas Mann.

Klaipėda, the port city, is the gateway, with a ferry across to the spit.

6. Kaunas

A white gabled palace building beside a cobbled town square
Kaunas Castle and Town Hall Square, in Lithuania's second city. (Pofka / Wikimedia Commons)

Kaunas, Lithuania's second city and interwar capital, has a wide-open Town Hall Square, a red-brick castle, and one of the best collections of interwar functionalist and Art Deco architecture in Europe — dense enough to earn a European Heritage Label. It is also home to the moving Ninth Fort Holocaust memorial and museum, and to the story of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who issued life-saving visas here in 1940.

It is under an hour from Vilnius by fast train.

7. Grūtas Park and Druskininkai

A large bronze statue of Stalin standing among trees in an outdoor park
A statue of Stalin at Grūtas Park, near Druskininkai, one of dozens of removed Soviet-era monuments displayed here. (Wojsyl / Wikimedia Commons)

Grūtas Park, near the spa town of Druskininkai in the south, gathers dozens of statues of Lenin, Stalin, and other Soviet-era figures pulled down from Lithuanian towns after independence — displayed, half-museum and half dark satire, along paths through birch forest, with a small museum of Soviet propaganda and daily life. Druskininkai itself, Lithuania's oldest spa town, has mineral baths, an indoor snow arena, and forest walks along the Nemunas river.

The two combine easily as a day out from Vilnius or a longer spa-town stay.

Lithuania is compact and well connected by bus and train. A first trip usually does Vilnius (with Trakai and the Hill of Crosses as day trips) and a few days on the coast at the Curonian Spit; Kaunas and the south are an easy add-on.

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